Conveyors



April 1960 F. w. MULLER ET AL 2,931,484

CONVEYORS 6 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Dec. 4, 1956 Jaye/7X02": FEM Ll e1 .Zi 6. To" Z/Le April 5, 1960 F. w. MULLER ET AL 2,931,484

CONVEYORS Filed Dec. 4, 1956 6 Sheets-Sheet 2 jmgemors Ff! My, L Zap April 1960 F. w. MULLER ETAL 2,931,484

CONVEYORS Filed Dec. 4 1956 6 Sheets-Sheet 5 m r's" F11, Zia 1 April 5, 1960 F. w. MULLER ETAL 2,931,484

. CONVEYORS Filed Dec. 4, 1956 6 Sheets-Sheet 6 T Q H. G. ZLL? 421 52 linite States CONVEYORS Friedrich Wilhelm Miiller, Kreis Bielefeld, and Hans Gunter Tiille, Bielefeld, Germany, assignors to Kochs Adlerniihmaschinen Werke A.G., Bielefeid, Germany This invention relates to conveyors of the kind in which power-driven endless conveying means with carrier means for goods are adapted to be at least temporarily attached to the conveying means for entrainment thereby are conducted along a well-defined path past a major number of stations equipped with ejection means. Each ejection means comprising a releasing member cooperating in such a manner with a selector unit associated with the individual carrier means that, according to the distributive positions of selector elements on the said selector unit in relation to correspondingly placed detector elements on the releasing member with which the selector elements move into contact, the goods will be ejected at a station whenever the distributive positions of the selector and detector elements at that station coincide.

The carrier means may be permanently attached to the conveying means, in which case the ejection means will merely cause the discharge of the goods. On the other hand, each carrier means may comprise a holder, permanently affixed to the conveying means, and a bin for the reception of the goods, said bin being adapted to be temporarily attached to the holder, and fitted with the selector unit, so that the bin together with the goods'contained therein will be discharged at the station.

Moreover, the carrier means may alternatively consist of a bin for the reception of the goods and adapted to be placed anywhere on to the conveying means embodied in a belt and thereby to be conducted through each station in such a way that the selector unit connected with the bin can cooperate with the release member of the ejection means at the required station.

The terms selector elements and detector elements relateto elements of the selector unit and the releasing member, which by their particular relative distributive positions and their dimensions are adapted to cooperate in the manner of a lock and key, and which when they matchi.e. when the selector and detector elements are complementary to one anothercause the desired ejection to take place, whereas in the event of their relative positions difiering-as in the case of a key that does not fit a particular lock-ejection will not take place. a

The selector and detector elements need not necessarily be in the form of projections and recessesas in a conventional lock and key-possibly arranged in alternation on the selector unit and the releasing member, they may, for instance, be embodied in electric contacts comprised in the electric operating circuit oi -an electrically controlled ejector mechanism, the said contacts closing the circuit when their relative positions are complementary.

The present invention concerns an improvement as well as a simplification of known conveying plants of the above described type, in which the ejection means ice mechanism which is more reliable and dependable in its" prising a large number of such stations, and in which. the discharge or ejection of the bins is quickly accom-' plished by virtue of the particular unique form of construction of the means of attachment of the bins to the conveying means.

It is also proposed by the invention to improve conveying means adapted for use in a workshop comprising a plurality of workplaces situated along the length of the conveying means, so that articles of work may be conveyed in open bins from any single workplace to any other optionally selected workplace.

Substantially, the invention consists in that instead of the releasing member of the ejection means being located at the individual stations and the selector units on the carrier means being arranged in the hitherto conventional manner on the conveying means of the con veying plant for conveying the carrier means, namely across the direction of travel, they are arranged in paral-' lel in the direction of travel and so contrived that their selector and detector elements respectively are likewise aligned in the direction of travel in a row in which they are distributed atoptionally selectable intervals; means being provided whereby the selector unit and ejection means are pushed into sliding contact when the carrie; means pass through a station to enable them mutually to explore the distributive positions of their respective selector and detector elements.

When the selector and detector units are arranged described the possible combinations of the numbers and the spacings of the selector and detector elements in each of their rows is very considerable. Moreover,.-this kind of selector and detector mechanism is extremely reliable in operation. Another advantage inherent in this novel arrangement is that when the selector and detector elements are purely mechanical in operation they con-. sist of projections and recesses and at least one of the two assemblies is adapted to be displaceable transversely to the direction of travel, so that when the distributive positions of the selector and detector elements are complementary, one of the cooperating assemblies may be moved into a position in which it will efiect discharge or ejection. The novel arrangement and disposition of the selector unit and releasing member will further permit bins that are carried by the conveying means in that they are suspended therefrom to be ejected reliably and in.-a particularly simple manner. Other objects and features of the present invention will be disclosed in the course of the following descrip; tion of a conveying plant with-reference to an illustra tive embodiment of the invention as shown in the accompanying drawings. The drawings represent a conveyor plant for bins of the kind used in a sewing shop for conveying the work that is to be sewn to individual workplaces or stations and thence to other workplaces or a station where the work is inspected. In these drawings: Fig. l is a plan view of a conveyor showing the twb return points of the conveying means to which the bins can be attached for conveying them to the stations;

Fig. 2 is a vertical section of the conveyor; Fig. 3 is a perspective view of one part of the con; veyor showing a bin arriving at a station; Fig. 4 is a perspective view of one phase in the action for the ejection of a bin; I Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a part of a conveyor Patented Apr. 5, 1960-- in which a bin with a modified selector unit enters a discharging station;

Fig. 6 is a diagrammatic representation of a blocking mechanism cooperating with the ejector mechanism and actuated by a bin that has been ejected;

Fig. 7 is a diagrammatic representation of signalling equipment for reporting bins deposited at the stations;

Fig. 8 is a particularly simple form of construction of 'an ejecting mechanism for conveyor bins, and

'Fig. 9 is a selector 'unit and suspension means on a bin.

The conveyor system illustrated in Figs. 1 to '4 consists of power-driven conveying means in the form of an endless roller chain 11 driven by an electric motor 12 in the direction of the arrows '13. Through a gearing 14 the electric motor 12 drives a sprocket wheel 15 of which the teeth 16 (see Figs. 1 and 2) engage the individual chain links '17 of the roller chain 11. At the other end of the long conveyor is an idler sprocket wheel 18 which merely serves to return the chain 11. Between the two sprocket wheels '15 and 18 the chain is guided in rails 19 on a supporting frame 20 in a manner already known in the art.

'Rigidly afiixed to the endless chain 11 are carrier plates'21 upon which open box-type bins 22 can be suspended to be conveyed by the chain 11 and conducted along a predetermined path past a number of receiving stations 23 where the said bins 22 are ejected, in a mannet that will be hereinafter more particularly described, whenever selector units on the bins are appropriately set for cooperation with a release member of the ejection means associated with the individual receiving stations.

Arranged along the outer sides of the two oppositely travelling sections of the chain 11 is a long apron slide 24 laterally inclined, i.e. sloping transversely to the direction of travel of the chain. Located along the lower edge of this apron are a number of stations or workplaces 25 consisting, for instance, of worktables 26 for seamstreases, sewing machine operators 27, inspectors 28, or handworkers 29. The lower edge of the apron .slide 24 is fitted with a guard rail 36 for retaining the ejected bins .222 when they slide down the apron. When such a bin containing work has been ejected at one of the stations 25 it is pulled forward along the apron 24 (cf. arrow A marked inside bin 22a at station 25a) to make room for the reception of a further bin at the same station.

When a particular operation at one of the stations, say 25b has been completed, the semi-finished work is returned to an empty bin, the selector unit on the bin is set according to a known key for the ejection of the bidet another station at which the work is to be sub jected to the next following operation, and the bin 22b is then hung, by moving it in the direction indicated by arrow B (top right in Fig. l), on to the next available free carrier plate 21 which happens to pass station 25b. The bin is then conveyed by the chain 11 to the station next required, which may be, for instance, on the opposite side of the conveyor chain 11, where it is automatically ejected.

The work may be initially loaded, and subsequently finally unloaded, at the head of the chain, for instance at the driving end, where the driving motor 12 is situated.

The attachment of the carrier plates 21 to the revolving chain 11 is rigid. One arm of a strong angle-bracket 31 is firmly secured to the carrier plate 21, whereas the other .end is connected to the two link 'pins of one of the links 17 of the chain. Moreover, each of the carrier plates 21 is provided with a support 3 2 which extends outwardly from the foot of the plate and rotatably carries a bearing roller 33 which runs in a rail F4 secured to the supporting framework 20. The said rail constitutes a guide for the carrier plate and partakes the form of a horizontal channel section and prevents the carrier plates vfrom tilting.

The carrier plates 21 are substantially equidistant and closely spaced along the entire length of roller chain 11. Their upper edge is provided with a wide slot 36 extending nearly along the entire length of the carrier plate 21, the lower edge 37 of the slot being intended for hanging a bin 22 on to the carrier plate 21.

Each of the bins 22 is equipped with a selector means or unit 38 arranged on the upper edge of that wall 39 of the bin which extends in the direction of travel of the bin when the latter is attached to. the conveyor. The selector unit 38 is rigidly connected with the hook- .shaped hangers 40, 41 of the bin 22, and comprises at least two selector elements which may be moved .so that they are separated from each other by any desired distance.

in the illustrated case one of the :selector elements is embodied in one of the hangers 40 or 41, whereas a finger 42 slidably adjustable in a slot in the selector unit 38 serves as a second or third selector element which in virtue of its displaceability permits the relative disposition of the selector elements, that is to say the relative distances between the elements, to be adjustably varied.

When the bin 22 (as shown in Fig. 3) has been hung on to the lower horizontal edge 37 of slot '36 of one of the carrier plates 21, the hangers 4% and 41 as well as the adjustable finger 42 will project inwardly 'beyondthc plane of the carrier plate 21. They therefore extend into the range of action of release member 43 which consists of a pivotally mounted plate which can be tilted about a shaft or axle 44 located parallel to the direction of travel, so that its forward edge is closely adjacent the rear wall of the carrier plate 21.

The front edge 45 of the releasing member 43 is provided with three detector elements embodied in rectan-v gular recesses 46, 47 and 48 of which the two recesses 46 and 43 dimensionally correspond with the dimensions of the two hook like projections or hangers 4d and '41. The distance between these two recesses likewise accurately corresponds with the distance between the two hangers.

The central recess 47 is of narrower width than the two recesses 4-6 and 48. The position of this recess is difierent at each receiving station and its varying distance from the two outer recesses 46 and 48 represents the combination lock of the releasing member 43.

By its own weight, i.e. owing to gravity, although a. spring load might be provided instead, the releasing member 43 is urged downwards. Its leading edge, that is to say the end from which the carrier plates 21 arrive at the station, comprises an upwardly curved lead-in portion 49. Near their leading edges the individual carrier plates 21 carry rigid pins 5% which project approximately at right-angles or horizontally from the vertical plates, the pins being located at a suitable level on the plate to enable them to ride under the curved lead-in 49 when a carrier plate arrives at a station and thereby to raise the releasing member 43 sufiiciently to allow it to clear the selector unit 38 which includes the two hangers 40 and 41. I

As a carrier plate 21 with a bin 22 suspended therefrom passes through a station the releasing member 43 will fall again when the pin 50 .has travelled along under the releasing member 43 to its far end, and the latter will then fall on the selector unit 33;, that is to say on to the projecting hangers 4t} and 41 and the slidably adjustable finger 452. If the position to which the adjustable finger 42 had been set does not correspond with the position of the recess 47 which constitutes the detector element of the releasing member 43, then the latter will finger 42, from the two "fixed selector elements 4!) and shown 'r'ai $3 41 is exactly equal to the distance of the middle recess 47 from the two outer recesses 46 and 48, then the releasing member 43 will drop down between the selector elements 40, 41, and 42 on to a stop member 51 (not shown in Fig. 3, but visible in Fig. 2) which then arrests the further downward swing of the releasing member 43.

In this lower position of the releasing member 43 the sloping ejector cams 52 and 53 which are rigidly connected with the releasing member and which are located at the ends of the releasing member 43 will be situated in the path of the hangers 4d and 41 so that the latter will ride up the ejector cams and lift'the bin 22. Lifting of the bin 22 detaches the hangers 40 and 41 from the horizontal edge 37 of the carrier plate 21 so that the bin will be raised free of the face of the carrier plate 21 and drop the short distance down on to the sloping apron slide 24 tip forward about its bottom rear edge and under the acceleration imparted to its centre of gravity rapidly slide down the slope of the apron 24 until intercepted by the guard rail 30.

Unlike known forms of construction of selector and releasing devices, the ejection of a bin is effected 'in the present conveyor system according to the invention by the cooperation of selector and detector elements aligned on the selector unit and releasing member in the direction of travel. The setting of the selector and detector elements is explored in virtue of the fact that the selector unit and detector member are brought into sliding contact-at least for the duration of the process of exploration. The selector unit acts as a locking unit which prevents the releasing member from performing the movement required for effecting release and ejection so long as the spacing of the selector and the detector elements do not match, whereas the selector unit permits the releasing member to perform pivotal movement which is transverse to the direction of travel of the conveyor Whenever the positions'of the two sets of elements match.

To secure this efiect it is not essential that the selector elements on the bin should be projecting elements such as hooks or fingers and the detector elements on the releasing member recesses such as slots. Alternative combinations and forms of construction of selector and detector elements would likewise be serviceable.

In the embodiment shown in Fig. the selector unit on the bin 22 takes the form of a sheet metal template 54 which cooperates with the two hangers 40 and 41, the template being provided with two slots 55. This template 54 is interchangeable and can be detachably inserted between angled holders 56 and 57. The releasing member 43 in this case consists of a stirrup 58 pivotally mounted on a shaft or axle 44, the cross member of the stirrup having two narrow fingers 59 located in a different position at each station. The leading end of the stirrup 58 is similarly provided with an upwardly curved lead-in 49 and the forwardly extended arms 60 and 61 likewise carry sloping ejector earns 52 and 53. Thearrangement illustrated in Fig. 5 works in exactly the same way as that which has already-been described with reference to Figs. 3 and 4. ysFig. 6-is a diagrammatic representation of a blocking mechanism for the ejection mechanism, the object of which is to prevent a bin which is about to be ejected from causing trouble by hitting another that has not yet been removed from thepoint of ejection.

Below the apron slide 24 down which the ejected bin will slide after ejection is a double-armed cranked lever 62 pivotally mounted on the supporting main frame (not One arm 63 of this lever is located below on opening 64 in the apron 24 through which it projects beyond the surface of the apron 24. The other arm '65 of the cranked lever 62 is connected by cable means '66 via a guide pulley 67 with a rearward arm 68 of the releasing member 43 which pivots about the axle 44.

' when an ejected bin 22as shown in Fig. 6-slides down the apron 24 after having been ejected, its front edge will catch the projecting end of lever arm 63 and depress a the raised position in such a manner as to prevent' th'e selector'unit, that is to say the hangers 40 and 41 (see Fig. 4) and the finger 42, from making contact therewith when a bin travels through the station. Consequently, every bin-even though its selector unit may have been set for ejection at the station in question--will be carried through the station without being ejected, until the bin 22 which happens to be blocking the ejector operation has been pushed aside so as to release the double-armed lever 62 and hence the releasing member 43 for the performance of its normal functions.

Fig. 7 illustrates an arrangement which permits the number of bins standing at the various stations to be automatically ascertained or controlled from a central point. To this end push buttons 69 and 70 are provided at the individual stations wherever it is possible for two bins 22 to stand. These push buttons deflect spring contact arms 71 and 72 and break the relative contacts whenever they are depressed by the weight of a bin against the counterpressure of a spring 69.

As long as there is no bin at the station in question the two contacts '71 and 72 remain closed so that a lamp 74 which is in circuit with the contacts and is located on a control panel 75 at a central control point will glow brightly. If there is only one bin at the station which affects contact 70, then the lamp 74 will not receive the full voltage but will be energised through a resistor 76 and the lamp 74 will be dimmed.

As has been described the resistor 76 will in this form of construction reduce the voltage applied to the lamp 7-4 and dim it, but the resistor 76 might be replaced by some other element for influencing the lamp 74 in some other way, for instance causing it to flash. When two bins have been deposited at the station, the contact 69 will likewise be broken and the control lamp 74 will go out.

Fig. 8' shows a particularly simple form of construction which embodies the basic principle of the invention and in which the ejection of a bin is effected by pins acting as a selector assembly which cooperates with several slots acting as detector elements and located on a carrier rail for the bin. Y

In this form of construction of the conveyor the bin 77 is guided on carrier and guide rails 78 and 79 of the conveyor assembly. The bin is suspended between the two rails, on one side by means of fixed pins 86 and 81, whereas on the other side of the bin two pins 82 and 83 are provided between which the distance can be adjusted.

The bin 77 is attached to the conveying means of't'ne conveyor (which is not itself shown but which maybe embodied for instance in a chain, as in the previous examples) by means of pusher plates 84 secured to the conveying means and adapted to push the bin along the rails 78 and 79 by means of an angled bracket 85.

Recesses 86 and'87 separated from each other a predetermined distance are cut into the guide rail 79 .at the receiving stations. As the bin 77 is'pushed alongby the pusher plates 84 the bin will be able to drop on to the sloping apron 24 at a station and slide down the side of the apron if the distance between its two fingers 82 and 83 exactly corresponds with the distance between the two cut-out recesses 86 and 87, and if the width and depth of the recesses alsov match the width andthe length of the fingers. In this form of discharge the bin will also tip to one side out of the position in which it is conveyed by the conveyor-plant, so-that thetilting motion will impart an acceleration to the bin inthe direction in which it is intended to slide down the=slope of the apron 24. The acceleration imparted to thebin by tilting it at the beginning of its ejection permits the dischargewhich is very reliably performed by the novel f rm 9f construction of the releasing member and the ejecting device-to be accelerated with a view to accurately guiding the bins from the continuously moving conveyor into pro-selected positions.

" In the forms of construction described with reference to Figs. 1 to 4 ejection is performed by firsttipping the bin after its release from the conveying means or carrier plates and then allowing the bin to drop through a comparatively short distance. The selector unit which, according to the invention, is combined with the means of suspending the bin may also be constructed in a somewhat different way, as shown in Fig. 9. In this instance the entire elongated selector unit 88 which in section has the shape of a half open U constitutes the means of suspending the bin. The two ends of the free shank of the U are modified to form two strong extensions 39 and 9b which are adapted to ride on to sloping cam members on the releasing device so that the bin will be lifted and thereby detached from the vertical carrier plate from which it has been suspended.

Between the two extensions 89 and 9b the selector device is provided with a series of tapering holes 91 into which pegs 93 may be inserted in any selected arrangement and in any number and thus provide the selector elements.

The releasing mechanism for cooperation with this selector device is substantially similar to that illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4. The use of pegs as selector elements allords the advantage that the distances between the selector elements and the extensions at either end of the selector rail can have only definite discrete values, an arrangement which facilitates the selection of a given distributive combination. The selector unit may be provided with reference numerals placed, for instance stamped, below each one of the holes for the reception of the pegs. Certain combinations of figures may then be allocated to each station and the ejectors at each station provided with detector slots arranged in such a way that they will correspond with the numbers on the selector rail allocated to the station in question.

When a bin equipped with a selector of the kind shown in Fig. 9 is ejected at a station identified with the position of the pegs in the holes of the selector unit the bin may be emptied and filled with a 'fresh load of articles and after rearrangement of the pegs 93 the bin may be despatched at once to another station thus selected, where the bin will then again be automatically ejected.

:Since the conveyor illustrated in the drawings is assumed to be located in a sewing workshop the moving parts thereof must be well protected from pieces of material, thread, or the like which may foul the mechanism. The entire driving mechanism is already efiectively shielded by the sloping apron Z4 and the carrier plates 21. However, to protect the mechanism against objectsfalling into the same from above a long sheet metal fairing '94 secured to the supporting frame 25 is arranged to cover the entire conveyor plant from end to end.

The arran ement of the selecting and releasing means in the longitudinal direction of the conveying movement results, more especially in the purely mechanically operating embodiments of these means shown in the drawings,

'in reat insensitivit in res ect of relative dis lacements of the carrying means and/or of the bins, and of the releasing means or the ejecting devices. Since in this new arrangement or" the selecting and detecting elements rit-is most important thatthe distances of the individual elements from one another should be maintained accurately, the inter-engaging. projections and recesses of the selecting and releasing means can be made with great clearance relatively to one another transversely of the conveying direction, without thereby impairing accuracy of coaction, i.e. of the correct selecting and ejecting process. in the practical working of an experimental apparatus it has been found that even large displacements of the selecting means relatively to the releasing means-- both in-ahorizontal and also in a vertical direction-dean take place; correct coaction of the selecting and releasing means is not thereby impaired. As can easily be seen, this insensitivity to lateral and vertical displacements in-. creases the reliability of operation-of the apparatus.

It is to be understood that although the invention has been described with specific reference to particular embodiments thereof, it is not to be so lirnited since changes and alterations therein may be made which are within the full intended scope of this invention as defined by the appended claims.

What we claim is:

l. A system for conveying materials and the like between individual working stations which are spaced at predetermined locations from each other, comprising power-driven conveyor means movable in a predetermined path past said individual working stations, receiving stations spaced from each other and disposed adjacent said conveyor means, carrier means for the materials to be conveyed releasably supported by said conveyor means, said carrier means being provided with selector means including adjustable selector elements, each of said receiving stations being provided with a releasing member provided with detector means and ejection means for releasing said carrier means from said conveyor means at a desired wornlng station, said detector means being slots spaced from each other a predetermined distance to thereby define a respective lock combination for each respective receiving station, said selector means being projections which extend towards said receiving stations, said adjustable selector elements being constructed to be selectively positioned on said carrier means to thereby define a key combination which is complementary to the respective lock combination of the respective receiving station at which said carrier means is to be released, and means for urging said releasing members into contact with said selector means for determining when said respective key and lock combinations are complementary, to thus effectuate release of said carrier means from said conveyor means through the intermediary of said ejection means.

2. A system for conveying materials and the like between individual working stations which are spaced at predetermined locations from each other, comprising powerdriven conveyor means movable in a predetermined path past said individual working stations, receiving stations spaced from each other and disposed adjacent said conveyor means, carrier means for the materials to be conveyed releasable secured to said conveyor means, said carrier means being provided with selector means including adjustable selector elements, each of said receiving stations being provided with a pivotable releasing member provided with detector means and ejection means to thereby define a respective lock combination for each respective receiving station, said selector means being finger-like projections, said adjustable selector elements being constructed to be selectively positioned onsaid carrier means to thereby define a key combination which is complementary to the respective lock combination of the respective receiving station at which said carrier means is to be released, and means for urging said releasing members into contact with said selector means for determining when said respective key and lock combinations are complementary, to thus efiectuate pivotable movement of said respective releasing members by means of said slots past said finger-like projections, whereupon said ejection means is in an operative position to permit release of said carrier means from said conveyor means.

3. A system according to claim 1, including carrier plates connected to said conveyor means, said selector means serving to releasably support said carrier means on said carrier plates, said releasing members being pivotable plates movable in a transverse direction with respect to the movement of said conveyor means, the forward edge of each of said pivotable plates extending toward said carrier plates and being provided with said slots.

4. A system according to claim 3, wherein said carrier plates are arranged in substantially vertical planes, each of said carrier plates being provided with a recess defining a suspension edge for supporting said selector means, the latter being hook-like projections which engage said suspension edge.

5. A system according to claim 3, said ejection means being cams which act on said projections, to thereby release said carrier means from said carrier plates.

6. A system according to claim 3, wherein said pivotable plates are biased in one direction and pivot about an axis which is substantially parallel to the direction of movement of said conveyor means, each of said pivot- I thereby permitting said selector means to be disposed below said pivotable plates upon movement of the former.

carrier means from said conveyor means to said working stations upon release from said conveyor means by said ejection means, and means in registry with said ejection v means of each releaslng member for rendering said ejection'means inoperative when said slide means is conf gested with carrier means.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,300,331 Bernheim Apr. 15, 1919 r 2,798,586 Freeman July 9, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS 475,670 a Great Britain Nov. 24, 1937 

